Character from Corfu, a nationalist knocking back vermouth and wine (7)
I believe the answer is:
chianti
'wine' is the definition.
(Chianti is an example)
'character from corfu a nationalist knocking back vermouth' is the wordplay.
'character from corfu' becomes 'chia' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a nationalist' becomes 'N' (abbreviation in politics).
'knocking back' is a reversal indicator.
'vermouth' becomes 'it' (short for 'Italian vermouth' as in 'gin and it').
'it' backwards is 'ti'.
'chia'+'n'+'ti'='CHIANTI'
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chianti that I've seen before include "Italian wine - mountain range" , "Wine produced in Tuscany" , "European wine" , "I can hit for popular Italian wine" , "Chain it to popular Italian wine" .)